


Actually

by WakeUpDreaming



Series: Holidays 2018: I'm going to actually do it this time [1]
Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: Bickering, F/M, Hey y'all it's me again, Love Actually References, Post Whiteout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 22:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16820041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WakeUpDreaming/pseuds/WakeUpDreaming
Summary: They got so caught up in cases that they've missed a Christmas. Toby insists on a Christmas movie night with himself and Happy. Love Actually. Which Happy doesn't like.Uhoh.





	Actually

She makes it until they have five minutes left before -

“I hate this movie,” Happy grumbles, staring at the screen.

“What?!” Toby exclaims. “That’s – you’re -”

Happy turns to him as he hears Toby sputter into silence. “Really?” She stares at him. “That’s what gets you silent?”

“It’s Love Actually!” Toby says, leaning forward. He drops his head in his hands. “Happy, I thought I could save you from your love affair with your bicycle, but you might be a lost cause.”

Happy leans back against the couch, rolling her eyes. “This movie is a lost cause.”

“It’s a good movie.”

“It’s after Christmas, so why are we watching it?”

“Because our Christmas was a little overtaken by jobs, and so was New Year’s Eve,” Toby replies. “So we’re doing something just for fun. A holiday movie, just a couple weeks late.”

“Well, it’s a shitty movie.”

Toby glares at her. “You are a shitty person, then.”

Happy’s startled – this might be the most livid he’s ever been toward her. “This got personal really fast.”

Toby leans back, shrugging as he snatches the bowl of popcorn off of the table. “You started it.” But he doesn’t make any suggestion that he’ll be changing the channel.

Happy wants to argue, but Toby looks really annoyed and there’s a chance pushing will lead to Happy getting kicked out of their movie night.

“Is there something about this movie?” Happy asks. She tries to sound casual about it, because she wants to understand. She really does. But there’s got to be something else about it. “Like, someone you saw it with?”

Toby doesn’t speak, just pulls the popcorn bowl closer into his lap.

“Damn, Toby, what’s with you?” Happy’s laugh is nervous. “How much did I offend you right now?”

“You really hate this movie?” he asks, sounding irritated, and, Happy realizes, a little hurt.

“Uh. Yeah.”

“Why?”

She considers it, trying to find an answer that won’t escalate this more than it already has. “It’s just unrealistic,” Happy decides.

This finally gets Toby to turn to her. “That’s your gripe with it?”

“Yes,” Happy replies. “Look, these two wouldn’t make any sense together,” she nods to the screen where the guy from Harry Potter and his little mistress were flirting, “like, why would she even go for him?”

“I don’t know, Happy,” Toby says, “Why would the hot girl go for such a dork?”

“My issue isn’t that,” Happy argues. “It’s that he’s cheating and she’s helping him cheat.”

“Yeah, she’s kind of awful.”

Happy rolls her eyes. “They’re both awful.”

“A lot of people in this movie are awful,” Toby says.

“Yes! Exactly!” Happy says. “That’s why I hate it. Why are there so many love stories happening if everybody is so horrible?”

“Because everybody should have the opportunity to fall in love, dumbass, stop being so annoying.” But there’s a little bit of a smile on Toby’s face. It’s a little out of place for the conversation, and Happy can’t figure out why it’s there.

“What’s so funny now?”

Toby nods to the screen. “Those two. The plain girl and the hot guy. You probably think that’s impossible, too.”

Happy considers it. “Well, she’s the one who has the sick brother, right?” Toby nods. “And he’s just a good dude. So, yeah. They would work together. But they don’t end up together because she’s too worried about her brother and ends up alone forever.” She wrinkles her nose. “That’s the opposite of a love story.”

“It’s possibility,” Toby says. “Making steps away from the comfortable into the uncomfortable, but getting to scared to do it and making excuses.”

There’s a weight over the room, suddenly, and Happy’s wondering if Toby’s going to bring up the storm, the spooning in the tent, their kiss. The trouble Happy’s been having with opening up. She’s made every excuse. She’s made every attempt to avoid this.

He’s going to call her out for being scared. She can feel it.

“Coworkers try to pull this off all the time in this movie,” Toby says, but it’s starting to sound like he’s talking to himself, “and it works two out of three times, which isn’t terrible odds.”

Happy can feel her face burning, and she settles for locking her eyes on the screen. It’s the scene with all of them at the Christmas show, and Hugh Grant kisses the girl that everyone calls fat but really isn’t. Happy hates this movie so fucking much.

“That’s weird,” Toby says. “I’ll agree to that.”

“To what?”

“Well, they work together,” Toby begins, “but he’s her boss. That gets in a weird grey area.” And then the screen changes to Martin Freeman. “Those two, though.” Toby nods to the screen. “They’re colleagues who work together in such an intense, close environment. They count on each other to make their movie work.” He turn to Happy. “They make sense,” his voice is soft, “don’t you think?”

The weight is almost oppressive now, but it feels different. Feels directed, from Toby to Happy. Like it means something big. “Yeah,” Happy decides, her heart racing, “yeah, I think they’re the ones who would most likely work out.”

Toby’s face is expressionless. “So here you think a workplace romance would work.”

Happy can hardly focus with how loud her heartbeat is in her ears. “I think – I think it could.” She can’t help it – her eyes flicker down to his lips. She suddenly remembers the way they felt against hers on that beach. How safe she’s felt in his arms. The way he almost sacrificed everything to save her.

But, most of all, the thing that convinces her, is how she’s watched almost all of this stupid movie just because she knows Toby likes it. She’s spent all this time watching with him, sharing popcorn, sharing a blanket, and didn’t start complaining until it was almost over.

She values her time. And she values her time with Toby.

Something snaps in her, some sort of resolve or fear or hesitation. She rises to her knees and, before she can think herself out of it, leans forward to press her lips to Toby’s. He kisses back immediately, almost like he’d been waiting for her. His hands go to her hair, and she gasps into his mouth. She wants to get closer.

And then she slams her knee into the metal popcorn bowl.

Swearing, she adjusts, holding her knee. “Damn it,” she whines, holding her knee. “Why’d you have to hold the popcorn?”

“Because I didn’t expect you to jump me on my couch.” She gets a look at that grin on his face, and, ugh, he looks so self satisfied. Why does she find that so attractive? “Not that I’m complaining. Your knee okay?”

She nods. “Move the bowl?”

“What?”

She rolls her eyes. “Apparently I have to do everything around here.” She pulls the bowl out of his lap and onto the coffee table, swinging a leg over his hips to get a better angle.

“I’m okay with you doing things,” Toby says, eyes wide. That smug look is gone, replaced with something akin to shock. “I okay with you doing any kind of things, especially right now.”

The movie is forgotten in the background as they discover each other beyond friends, as Happy pulls down the bricks blocking her from him.

Maybe, she muses a little later, when they’re watching Mythbusters and eating pizza, she can hate most of the movie. But that part with the coworkers, with Martin Freeman. Well, if you work that closely with someone, maybe this whole workplace romance thing could work.

As she looks up at Toby, who is snoring with his head tilted back on the couch, she hopes it does.

**Author's Note:**

> I misssss fandommmmmmmm so much. I miss Quintis and all of you guys and writing. Life's been a monster the past year or so but hey! I'm posting something - that's a victory :) Merry Holidays and Happy Quintismas ;)


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